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LETTER 



MQ8 i^©IILILIEINi©Y 
WHITEMARSH B. SEABROOK, 

Governor of the State of South-Carolina. 

ON THE 

DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION. 



PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 



CHARLESTON, S. C. 

A. E. MILLER, NO. 5 BROAD-STREET, 
1850. 



To His Excellency 

WHITEMARSH B. SEABROOK, 

Governor of South- Carolina : 

Sir, — It will not be thought presumptuous in any man 
respectfully to submit his opinions to your consideration, on 
a subject so important, as the dissolution of the Union. — 
Even they who have been most scrupulous in abstaining 
from all participation in the ordinary discussions of party 
politics, will need no apology for freely examining a ques- 
tion, in which not the success of party or persons, but the 
destiny of the whole country is deeply involved. 

It is proposed to destroy the Confederacy of the United 
States. The people have so long and uninterruptedly en- 
joyed the beneficent influences of this crowning mercy to the 
wisdom and virtue of our ancestors, that they no longer ap- 
preciate the blessing, and are in danger of testing its value 
by its loss. They have lived in the healthy atmosphere of 
peace and prosperity which it diffuses around them, as they 
breathe the vital air, without a thought of how essential it is 
to their existence. We would destroy that which all other 
people similarly situated are craving to possess. The best 
men of Italy and Germany, taught by our example, have 
been long laboring and hoping to obtain this great remedy for 
intestine dissention, and aggression from abroad. United 
Italy, United Germany, are the day dreams of Italian and 
German Patriots. To realize them, they freely peril for- 
tune and life. Until they can be realized, they see no hope 
for Italy or Germany. But we upon whom Providence has 
bestowed this pearl of great price, are willing to cast it away 
and trample it in the mire. The Statesmen of Europe, and 
Americans abroad, sufficiently removed from our sectional 
disputes, to be able to take a broad and comprehensive view 
of the subject, are astonished at the facility with which we 



would destroy what they so clearly perceive to be of value 
beyond all estimate. They see from the vantage ground ot 
their position, what we do not, involved as we are, in the 
dust and smoke of party disputation, that our Confederacy 
is the talisman which has produced the miracles of Ameri- 
can progress, and made the United States the wonder and 
envy of all Nations ; that without it, we should become the 
scorn and prey of the monarchies of Europe. 

They ask us with astonishment, what is it you propose to 
destroy ? Is it the Confederacy which for sixty years has 
secured undisturbed internal peace to a continent — which 
has conferred unexampled prosperity on the people of North 
America — which has enlarged their limits from the Missis- 
sippi to the Pacific Ocean, and increased the number of 
their States from thirteen to thirty-one — which establishes 
in this immense region the same laws, gives it the same lan- 
guage and literature, imparts to it the blessings of unlimited 
free trade and unrestricted social intercourse, and enables it 
to carry on, in unbroken links, from State to State, every 
kind of internal improvement, by which that trade and inter- 
course may be made more profitable and easy ? It is 
Union which has imparted to the American people, the 
Strength and influence of a great Nation. It is Union which 
has made their voice potential among the strongest of the 
earth. It is by the Union only, that we are enabled to 
bid defiance to all foreign aggression from whatever quar- 
ter. Who are indifferent to the advantages of the com- 
merce, or would lightly challenge the hostile fleets and 
armies of the States united ? Shall we, from this con- 
dition, reduce ourselves to that of separate and feeble com- 
munities ? The fables of our childhood would rebuke our 
rashness and teach us the strength of Union, and the weak- 
ness of dissention and separation. 

Let us reflect on these effects of the Confederacy more 
minutely. To the Southern man — the advocate of free 
trade — what can be more imposing than the condition of a 



great continent more than equal in extent to all Europe, en- 
joying within itself, the most perfect freedom of trade and 
intercourse ; no duties, no passports, no hindrance of any- 
kind. Every man goes where he pleases ; sells and buys 
what he pleases ; establishes his household in any State of 
the thirty-one, with all the rights and privileges of the native 
citizen of each State, without any the smallest official in- 
terference of police, spy, or custom-house regulations. No- 
thing like it exists, or nas e^ er existed on earth. In Europe 
you are stopt on the frontiers of every State. Your baggage 
must be rummnged, your passports vised. In every petty 
principality, you are exposed to the insolence and ignorance 
of the government officials. Now duties on goods, new ex- 
aminations of persons, new difficulties of every sort, await 
you at every step. What a contrast this to the unrestrained 
liberty of intercourse, to the unlimited freedom of trade, 
which the Confederacy, and the Confederacy alone, secures 
to the American citizen throughout his immense country. 
And it* these of the Confederacy be admirable now, 

what will i ey be when the population and wealth of the 
country are increased a thousand fold? 

Again, whal can be more admirable to every Christian 
man, than the unbroken internal peace which has prevailed 
lor s ween the North American States — Na- 

tions as they are, with independent State Governments, 
with various interests, with feeli metimes hostile to 

each other, with serious conflicts of opinion on important 
subjects from time to time, they have preserved .and enjoyed, 
uevertheL ss, the incalculable blessings of undisturbed peace. 
Compare our condition with that of Europe for the last se- 
venty years. Compare it with that of the South American 
States. Who can estimate the loss of life, of wealth, of pro- 
gress in every science and art of civilized life, the crimes, 
the sufferings which the wars of Europe have indicted on its 
people in thi irentyyears? Look at the condition of 

the South American States, at their obscure and unintetli- 
ble wars, in which no one cares to ask who is victor and 



who vanquished ; at the rise and fall of military despots, 
rivals in cruelty and rapacity, with no law but that of the 
sword, and no prospects of an end to the reign of bloodshed, 
robbery, and utter lawlessness. From these evils, nothing 
but the Confederacy preserves us. No man can believe that 
if that grand conservator of the peace were destroyed, it 
would be possible to prevent in this country the existence of 
the same violence, plunder, and bloodshed. In a short time 
border disputes, for which causes always exist, would arise, 
with lawless men to head them. The States would be in- 
volved in the conflicts, and ambitious demagogues would be 
always ready to lead, to excite, to embitter the mutual hos- 
tility. Standing Armies will be created in every State, and 
military despotism be established inevitably every where. 
Can any man doubt this who has read a page of ancient or 
modern history ? Greece, Italy, all countries, all ages afford 
lessons perpetually repeated, that cannot be misunderstood. 
Are we willing to be involved in such feuds and broils as 
characterized the modern Italian States ? Are we content 
to engage in wars like those of the English Heptarchy, which 
Milton compares to the battles of kites and crows, as little 
worth a chronicle ? Are we ready to exchange the rule of 
law and order, for that of petty military despotisms ? If we 
are, then abolish the Confederacy, destroy the Union, and 
for peace we shall soon have wars that will be little better 
than murders, and rulers who will not be far removed from 
chiefs of banditti. 

In this case, what will be your condition in relation to fo- 
reign countries? As a Confederacy we command the res- 
pect of all governments, as unconnected States, we shall 
become the sport and prey of all; as a Confederacy we can 
exact justice from France or England, or any other nation ; 
we are an object of fear and apprehension to Spain ; we 
have crushed Mexico in two campaigns ; as separate States 
we should become contemptible in the eyes of Portugal or 
Naples. We shall have British fleets exacting private 
claims as in Greece, and troops from France or England 



landing to adjust our quarrels, as on the banks of the Rio 
Plata. The commerce which now equals that of England, 
and exceeds that of any other nation, would be torn to pie- 
ces. There would no longer be any force adequate to pro- 
tect it, among feeble communities, engaged in endless broils 
and feuds, and stript of all power except that of inflicting 
mutual injuries. The apparent destinies of the American 
people, so glorious in the past, so much more glorious in the 
future, would pass away like an unsubtantial vision of the 
night, and the great Anglo-Saxon race would mourn over 
the country, which they are now exulting in as the consum- 
mation of the power and honor of their name. 

But it is said we can form a great Southern Confederacy 
and become, more than ever before, prosperous and power- 
ful. Who can tell whether, even if separated from the 
North, this formation of a Southern Confederacy would be 
practicable ? Where would it begin ? What States would 
it include? Certainly not Virginia, or Kentucky, or North- 
Carolina, or Tennessee, or Louisiana. But suppose them 
all willing to take counsel for the purpose, can any one be 
assured that they would unite in a general Southern Gov- 
ernment? Will there be no differences of opinion, no anta- 
gonist interests ? We all know the difficulty with which 
the present Confederacy was formed, the obstacles that de- 
layed and almost defeated its adoption by the States after 
it had been laboriously shaped and settled by the Conven- 
tion* of States. Will not the same difficulties beset the 
union proposed ? Why there is hardly a State in which 
there are not opposing interests within its own limits. Up- 
country and low-country, property and population, have 
each their staunch and sometimes bitter advocates. We 
all remember the hot and uncompromising disputes between 
West and East in the last Virginia Convention, and do we 
believe that in a Convention of the Southern States, suppo- 
sing such an one to exist, there will be nothing but the milk 
and honey of mutual concession and forbearance, no hostile 
feelings, no conflicting interests, no impracticable obstinate 



unyielding minds ? He that believes this, knows nothing of 
men or public bodies. For my part, I firmly believe that 
the present Confederacy is the first and last which the coun- 
try will ever see. If that be destroyed, there is forthwtth 
forever an end to confederacy in North America. This is 
my solemn conviction, and I forewarn our citizens of this 
truth. No future Confederacy can be sanctified like the 
present by the memories of the past; by associations with 
the great men and great events of the grand epoch of Ame- 
rican history ; by the wisdom and virtues of the Father of 
his Country. If this Union cannot stand, there is no hope 
for the continuance of any other. The spirit of impatience 
to confederate rule which our example will sanction and es- 
tablish will prevail forever. The smallest real or supposed 
injury or inconvenience inflicted on any one member of any 
future supposed Union of States, will be enough to induce 
that member to abandon it — to secede, to break up without 
scruple or remorse. They would become mere temporary 
partnerships, as the great English Statesman describes it, 
like partnerships for the sale of dry goods or groceries, to be 
dissolved with as little reflection or difficulty. We see this 
plainly enough as far as the North is concerned. No one 
believes that New-England and Pennsylvania could perma- 
nently unite, or that any State would long endure the arro- 
gant and intriguing spirit of New- York. 

But we flatter ourselves that in the South it is different, that 
we have a bond of union in the institution of slavery wnich 
alone will insure our cohesion, that ive would stand united if 
all the world were at variance. Is the necessity of union 
among the Southern States any more apparent than was the 
necessity of union among all the States at the end of the Revo- 
lutionary War? They were then feeble communities exhaust- 
ed by a long war, without money or credit, in debt, at the 
mercy of England, unless they adhered to each other, and yet 
it required the almost superhuman exertions of the ablest and 
best men of the country to persuade the States to accept the 
present form of government. Men are not swayed by rea- 



son, but by passion, by prejudice, by interest, real or sup- 
posed, by the personal views of leaders, by the art of dema- 
gogues, by notions and fancies powerful, while they last, 
however short in duration. Will the South be exempt from 
these disturbing influences? Most assuredly not. Besides, 
is it certain that there will be no difference of opinion on the 
subject of slavery even in the South itself. Was there no 
difference in the Virginia Convention ? So long as the ques- 
tion concerning slavery is between the North and South, we 
may count on unanimity of opinion and feeling in the South- 
ern States, however much they may differ as to the mode of 
proceeding in vindicating their rights, or redressing their 
wrongs. But when the question is purely Southern, are we 
quite sure that we shall find the like unanimity? Will the 
mountain region agree with the coast? Will the men of 
Buncombe, or Spartanburg, or of East Tennessee, or West 
Virginia, consent to enjoy no greater political weight than 
the slaves of our rice and cotton-fields ? Is it not clear then, 
that there will be abundant causes fcr difference and disa- 
greement, and that the hope that all will be easy and smooth 
in the formation of a Southern Confederacy, is a delusion 
and a snare. It will not be easy. Once break up the pre- 
sent Confederacy and the principle of voluntary cohesion is 
o-one forever In this as in every other movement of change 
or revolution men never go back. The principle of voluntary 
association among the States will cease to exist. It will be 
followed by confusion and disorder firsc, and last by the 
forced combinations brought about by temporary interests, 
or military power. In this Avatar of disorder and ruin, 
the great pursuits of peace, civilization and refinement will 
be trodden under foot by the rapacious and ambitious de- 
magogues, who begin with being courtiers to the people, 
and end with being their tyrants. To all this what answer 
can possibly be made, but that we are a peculiar people ; 
among us there can be no dissention ; we shall enjoy perpe- 
tual harmony from Mason and Dixon's line to the Gulf; no 
dispute or discord can ever disturb the fraternity of our peo- 



10 

pie ; a new series of ages will descend from heaven ; the 
lion will lie down with the lamb, the turbulent passions of 
men, and the crimes they lead to, will no longer deform the 
face of society, and Justice and the Golden Age, which 
have left all other regions of the earth, will nevertheless, re- 
visit our own. If for this shadow and delusion, the mere 
dream of distempered imaginations, we let go the substan- 
tial blessings of law and order, # and peace at home, and se- 
curity from abroad, we shall most justly become a by-word 
among all nations. This is no occasion for listening to the 
voice of passion, or petulance, or indignation, however justly 
excited. It is one too grave, too solemn. No matter how 
much we may detest the vile factions that disgrace the Na- 
tion, let us not permit a proper abhorrence of them to hurry 
us into acts, the results of which no human sagacity can pre- 
tend to foresee. Let us not permit our minds to dwell light- 
ly on the terrors unspeakable of civil war, and become in- 
struments to accomplish what the worst men of the North 
are seeking and striving to brins; about. 

And for what are we urged to dissolve the Confederacy ; 
to exchange unexampled peace and progress in all the arts 
of civilized life, in wealth, in national strength, in power and 
influence among the strongest of the earth, for the unimagin- 
able horrors of civil war, and political disorganization? 
What act of the Congress of the United States will justify 
us to ourselves, our posterity, and the world, in putting at 
jeopardy this our great experiment in Republican Govern- 
ment — the benefits of which all people are now enjoying? 
Is it the Act settling the boundary of Texas? An offer to 
purchase her land is made by the United States for the pur- 
pose of quieting all disputes about that boundary. Texas 
is free to sell or not, as she pleases. Will any other State 
pretend to say that she shall not do as she pleases with her 
own domain? Have not Maine, Virginia, North-Carolina, 
Georgia, and other States, given or sold portions of their 
territorial possessions? Do we mean to erect ourselves into 
guardians of the persons and property of the good people of 



11 

Texas, and determine for them whether they shall exchange 
land which they do not want for money which they do? 
The Texan Senators approve, the Texan people accept the 
offer, but we refuse and profess to consider their sale of 
land for money as a violation of our constitutional rights, 
and a reason for dissolving the Confederacy. We claim 
the right to interfere, because of the consequential damages 
that may result to us. Why this is precisely the doctrine that 
Massachusetts is seeking to establish in reference to slavery 
in the South. She claims the right to interfere with our 
institutions on account of the injuries indireclly arising to 
the purity of her morals and the interests of her people. It 
is only necessary to state the proposition, and we see its ex- 
travagance. 

Is it the passage of the Territorial bills for Utah or New 
Mexico, that constitutes the breach of our constitutional 
rights? It is perfectly well understood, that Mr. Calhoun 
repudiated the Missouri Compromise line. He would have 
acquiesced in its establishment, but would not seek it, or 
approve it, or vote for it. He demanded, whether north or 
south of that line, Territorial governments in which Congress 
should include no provision on the subject of slavery, as it has 
no right to legislate respecting it in any shape or form. And 
such precisely is the nature of the Territorial governments 
in question. The Congress of the United States have re- 
fused to incorporate in them the Wilmot Proviso. They 
have rejected that proposition by a large majority. They 
have passed Territorial bills without a syllable said on the 
subject of slavery. Ah, but we are told the Mexican laws 
are there. The Mexican laws, whatever they are, were 
not made by the Congress of the United States. We pro- 
fess to dissolve the Uniou because the Legislature of the 
Union has infringed the Constitution. Where is the act of 
Congress which so infringes it? There is none. We might 
as reasonably say that the climate and soil of the Territory 
are equivalent to the Wilmot Proviso, and hold Congress 
responsible, as that the laws or customs of Mexico are so, 



12 

and regard the United States Government as therefore inva- 
ding our constitutional rights. If the laws of New Mexico 
are contrary to the Constitution of the United States, those 
laws are void, and would be so declared by the Supreme 
Court. What more can we demand? Do we require that 
Congress shall interfere and enact that slavery is admissible 
within the Territory ? Why this is at variance precisely 
with our own position — that Congress has no right whatever 
to legislate on the subject of slavery at all — -that no such 
power is delegated — that any such assumption of power 
would be an usurpation. If we demand of Congress an act 
to admit, do we not in the same breath concede a right to 
exclude, and thus grant what we have all along most perti- 
naciously denied ? No, the Territorial bills for Utah and 
New Mexico do not in the remotest sense infringe the consti- 
tutional rights of the South. The attempt to make other 
things which are not Acts of Congress, equivalent to Acts 
of Congress, and to draw the inference that the Constitution 
is infringed, is a sophism too evident to deceive, and quite 
too slender to justify a thought of dissolving the Confederacy 
for alleged violations of the Constitution of the United States. 
Is the admission of California into the Union, the measure 
that will justify the destruction of the admirable creation 
produced by the Convention of 17S7, and the restoration of 
the political chaos which the great men of that day so nar- 
rowly and happily escaped ? If it is said that there was 
much of irregularity, of want of conformity to precedent, of 
haste, of disorder in making California a State, we may fair- 
ly admit it. The advocates of order know the advantage of 
forms, and wish to see them strictly observed. They would 
have been better pleased if in the formation of a government 
for California, there had been no departure from the regular 
systematic mode of proceeding in similar cases. But the 
whole case of California is anomalous. There has been no- 
thing like it in the history of the world. The rush of multi- 



tutles into the country, the character of a great part of these 
adventurers, the necessity for a vigorous government with- 
out delay to prevent absolute anarchy, all these things con- 
stitute an exceptional case, quite as much so as that of 
Texas, and may equally excuse the absence of Territorial 
government, prior to their admission as States. But, how- 
ever this may be, whether California ought, or ought not to 
have been admitted into the Union, is a question of expedi- 
ency merely. There is no infringement of the Constitution 
in her admission as a State. It is a question over which 
Congress have power to act at their discretion. They may, 
or may not have acted discreetly or judiciously on the occa- 
sion, but the right to act is unquestionably theirs. The 
single condition prescribed by the Constitution is, that the 
government of the State asking admission should be Repub- 
lican. Has that condition not been complied with? If it 
has, then there is no other prescribed. The provision of the 
Constitution is, that Congress may admit new States. — 
There is no other in reference to the subject. One Congress 
may admit a new State under certain forms and regulations, 
another Congress may adopt others in another case. The 
propriety of uniformity is admitted, but the necessity of some 
regard to circumstances is equally apparent. Do we insist 
that the State applying should first have gone through a 
a Territorial form of Qovernment? What then should we 
have done with Texas? Does the circumstance of her being 
a foreign State, justify a departure from the Rule, so also 
will other circumstances in other cases arising from time 
to time. There has then been no infraction of the Consti- 
tution, not the shadow of any. The assertion that the ad- 
mission of California is a virtual adoption of the Wilmot 
Proviso is a mere rhetorical flourish, and we are called upon 
to dissolve the Union for a figure of speech. 

It may be asked too, considering the question on the 
ground of expediency, what difference, what practical dif- 



14 

ference, the refusal to admit California could have made in 
reference to the question of slavery ? Would the delay of a 
year, often years, have produced a shade of change in her 
policy? It may be fairly assumed that for one Southern 
man who would, under any circumstances, during that time, 
emigrate to California, one hundred or five hundred would 
go from other countries. Can we suppose that such a frac- 
tion of the population of the country, such an infinitismal 
part of the people of California would shape its fundamen- 
tal laws, and control its policy? So far, therefore, as prin- 
ciple goes, there has been no breach of the Constitution in 
the admission of California, and so far as expediency or any 
practical results or benefits to the South are concerned, the 
refusal to admit, and any consequent delay, would make no 
difference to the Southern States in any possible mode. 

But it may be said, although there has been no formal in- 
fraction of the Constitution, there are reasons sufficiently 
cogent to justify the people of the South in resorting to the 
extreme measure of dissolving the Union. The resolutions 
passed by Northern Legislatures ; the hostile language of 
Northern members of Congress ; the abuse of Southern Insti- 
tutions and character by the Northern press; the societies 
formed to assail our rights, and rob us of our property — these 
things are sufficient cause for offence and resentment. They 
are assuredly well fitted to excite the indignation of every 
Southern man, and to produce between North and South, 
mutual dislike and permanent animosity. They may lead, 
as a distinguished Senator from Georgia very justly re- 
marks, if persisted in, to the inevitable consequences of con- 
vincing the Southern people, that there is an invincible in- 
compatibility of character between the South and the North 
which may lead to a separation. But they have not yet done 
so. Whenever that point is reached, we shall have evidences 
clear and unmistakable that it is. When the indications of 
Northern enmity are so general and fixed, as to justify this 



15 

belief, there will be sure indications on our part that such is 
our conviction. Hitherto, there have been none. A series 
of resolutions at a mass meeting, a declamation before the 
people, or a State paper even from a legislative body, is not 
enough. These things are so easy, so common, so unmean- 
ing, that they carry no weight with them. They not only 
require no sacrifice from the parties engaged, but afford them 
an agreeable excitement. Whenever we shall have reach- 
ed the conviction, that the incompatibility between the North 
and South is so great as to make it impossible to preserve 
the political and social relations now existing between them, 
there will be something done as well as said — something 
will be resorted to, not like a barbecue and a speech which 
afford a pleasant recreation, but which will demand some 
sacrifice and self-denial, and give conclusive proof that we 
are in earnest. 

In that case the remedy resorted to would naturally be 
appropriate to the evil we would redress. The wrong of 
which we complain is in the state of Northern Society ; it is 
social, not political; it comes from the people of the North, 
not from the Government of the United States. When pub- 
lic opinion in the South is prepared to turn from resolutions 
to some more efficient defence, it will be of a social nature, 
therefore not a political one ; directed against the people of 
whose sentiments and proceedings we complain, not the 
National Government which has done us no injury. We 
are insulted, outraged by the sentiments expressed by Nor- 
thern communities in reference to Southern institutions and 
character, and we are resolved to apply a remedy ; but we 
will not resort to an extreme one if another will do ; we will 
not fly to surgery if a simple alterative may be sufficient. 
We will adopt one appropriate to the purpose. To the so- 
cial wrong we would naturally apply a social remedy. We 
would withdraw from all friendly or commercial intercourse 
with the offending States ; we would cease to waste our inr- 



16 

comes in Northern Cities ; we would no longer trade in Nor-* 
thern Ports where our people now buy goods sent from the 
South, where they could have purchased the same article at 
a lower price; we would discourage the purchase of Northern 
manufactures ; we would no longer send our sons to Northern 
Colleges to the neglect of our own ; or employ Northern ves- 
sels, discouraging the ship-wrights and masters of vessels 
in our own Forts. 

These measures would be resorted to the more readily 
because whilst they spoke a significant warning to the Nor- 
thern people of the consequences to which their acts and 
sentiments directly lead, and supplied in themselves an effi- 
cient weapon against the offending States, they would be 
the cause of rapid progress in developing the resources of the 
South; in improving its Colleges: enlarging its manufac- 
turing enterprise ; increasing its domestic tonnage ; and 
spending on improvements at home the large sums of mo- 
ney now squandered abroad. They may be sufficient to 
effect a cure of the evils of which we complain, without en- 
countering the crimes and sufferings of civil war. And 
surely it is the part of prudent men not to resort to desperate 
measures until all others have been tried and found to be 
unavailing. No surgeon amputates a limb, until he has lost 
all hope of saving it. The physician does not abandon the 
patient, until every remedy has been exhausted. Shall we 
be less careful and hopeful, when the limbs or life of a Nation 
are concerned? 

It has been sometimes thought that the disputes and divi- 
sions among certain Theological bodies are of evil augury, 
and portend civil and political dissentions in the nation. As 
justly might we conclude that the schism which has lately 
rent asunder the Church of Scotland, affords evidence of in- 
testine commotion in that country. Every one knows that 
of all assemblies of men, the most pertinacious and uncom- 
promising in opinion are those of the Clergy, and that above 
all other meetings under the sun, they are most prone to ex- 



17 

hibit, not charity, forbearance, and brotherly love, but 
the absence of those virtues. That disputes should arise 
in the Baptist, Methodist, and other Churches of the United 
States, is not a whit more surprising than that they have 
existed, and do exist, in the Catholic, Episcopalian, and 
Presbyterian Churches of other countries. Between the 
Gallican and ultramontane parties of the one, or the Pusey- 
ite and low Church divisions of the other, or the free and 
established Church sections of the third, the controversy is 
quite as great and as serious as that of the Churches in this 
country. In either case they prove nothing but the prone- 
ness of Theologians to wrangle. The odium Theologicum 
has therefore long heen proverbial. Do we expect to escape 
it in this country ? Or shall we regard its existence as pro- 
ving any thing more than a certain idiosyncrasy in an excel- 
lent but irritable class of men which is continually turning 
discussion into dispute. 

It cannot then with any justice be said, that there has 
been any infraction of the Constitution in the measures late- 
ly adopted by Congress. Neither can it be asserted, that 
public opinion in the Southern States has given any clear 
and unmistakable evidence of a conviction on the part of 
our people that they can no longer continue their social, 
civil, or political relations with the Northern States. 

For my own part, I cannot but hope, that the feeling of 
alienation, and the causes that have produced it, may be 
equally transient. It was thought a virtue in ancient times 
not to despair of the Republic, and there is no reason why it 
should be any the less a patriotic duty now. That causes of 
dissention and dispute should spring up from time to time, be- 
tween States so numerous and various in interest, is not sur- 
prising. Similar as they are in character, language and 
customs, more so than the people of any other country, yet 
it will occasionally happen that conflicting interests will 
produce hard words and hostile feelings. In the great courv 
3 



18 

cil of the nation, these feelings find their vent in angry debate. 
The fierce passions of a popular assembly diffuse themselves 
through the minds of the people, and the Stales appear at 
times to be on the verge of open rupture and civil war. But 
so long as the conservative power of the Confederacy exists, 
these contentions are harmless. They beget a speech in 
Congress, or a suit in the Supreme Court, nothing more. 
The causes which produce them pass away like other fash- 
ions of opinion. New combinations of interest are formed, 
other men with different principles and altered sentiments, 
occupy the political field, and amid the excitements of new 
pursuits or contentions, look back with wonder at the angry 
disputes which excited the passions of their predecessors. 
Sixty years ago Massachusetts was actively engaged in the 
African Slave Trade, who can tell what opinions she may 
entertain sixty years hence on the subject of slavery ? A 
variation in circumstances, a change of interest, a new fash- 
ion of philanthrop}', may make so great a change, that her 
zeal for colored citizens and African emancipation may be- 
come as obsolete as her belief in witchcraft, or in the ortho- 
dox faith of her Pilgrims. 

At least, let us not suffer anger and indignation, how- 
ever just, to hurry us into measures the consequences of 
which no human eye can perceive. You apprehend future 
aggression and wrong, in addition to the present, but suffi- 
cient for the day is the evil. The maxim is of Divine 
authority. It is not the part of wisdom to rush into certain 
ills for the purpose of avoiding contingent troubles. The 
future is in the hands of Providence. No fretful impa- 
tience on our part can change his purposes. If the present 
does not demand extreme measures, let us not anticipate 
a future necessity that may never come. We may well 
wait. The South is growing more rapidly in wealth and 
power than at any former period of her history. Hitherto, 
the incomparable climate and fertile lands of the interior 



19 

have been difficult of access. The Railroads, in use and 
about to be constructed, will open them to the knowledge 
and enterprize of all the world. Hitherto the industry of the 
South, content with its agriculture, has sought no other em- 
ployment. Now her cotton manufactures compete success- 
fully with those of any other country. A single undertaking 
in this direction has built up in four years among the barren 
hills near Aiken, a well ordered community of fifteen hun- 
dred persons, and bestowed upon them comfort, education, 
religious teaching, and growing intelligence and refinement. 
A new impulse has been given to Southern enterprise, and 
ten years of successful industry from this time forward, will 
do more to increase the wealth, population and resources of 
the Southern States, and make them independent of all the 
world, than any previous forty in their progress. Such are 
the prospects before us, if the energies of the people are not 
diverted from the pursuits of peace, to be exhausted and 
wasted in the devastations ofcivil war. 

It is sometimes attempted tojustify a resort to such a war 
by drawing a parallel between our present relations with 
the General Government, and those of the Colonies with 
England at the time of the Revolution. Because the Ame- 
rican people threw off the government of Great-Britain in 
establishing their political liberties, we are urged to destroy 
the Confederacy as inconsistent with their present existence. 
But a moment's consideration will point out the essential 
difference in the two cases. In the first, the aggrieved peo- 
ple had no lot or part in the government. They did not as- 
sist in forming it; they made no portion of it ; they were 
without representation in either legislative body, and over 
its judicial or executive powers they had no influence direct 
or remote. The demand on the part of America was, to be 
represented before she was taxed — a demand so fair that 
the first men of England admitted its justice. But in the 
present case, in reference to the relations we hold to the 



20 

General Government, the circumstances are directly the re- 
verse. We assisted largely in forming it ; we have our full 
share of representation according to contract, in both houses. 
In the Senate we have the same weight that New-York or 
Ohio has with five times the population. In the election of 
the Executive, we have our just proportion of influence, and 
our lawyers have not been without seats on the bench of the 
Supreme Court. With what reason can we compare this 
condition of things with that in which the Colonies of Ame- 
rica were governed by a monarchy three thousand miles off, 
knowing nothing of their character, caring nothing for their 
interests, and allowing them no participation in its counsels? 
What was virtue and patriotism in the one case, may prove 
to be but a turbulent and factious spirit in the other. Let 
us leave this spirit to the North, if they choose to nurse it, 
but for us, let us preserve the work of the Father of his 
Country, and maintain the Confederacy, in conformity with 
his advice. We boast of the conservative spirit of the 
South and justly, but assuredly we shall give no evidence of 
it, in destroying the power which alone preserves the peace 
ot this great country, and secures it from the miseries of in- 
testine strife. 

I have not adverted to the proposal of what is called State 
action. I cannot believe that the State, having pledged 
herself not to proceed in advance of her neighbors in a mat- 
ter of common concernment, will violate that pledge in a 
spirit of restless impatience. It is said, as a reason for 
such a measure, that if the State secedes it will compel the 
adjoining States to join and support her. And is this a 
cause for action that becomes the character of South-Caro- 
lina? Would it be consistent with the strait forward inte- 
grity of purpose that belongs to her, to draw or force her 
sister States into a position which their deliberate judgment 
might avoid or disapprove ? Shall we rest success in so 
important a proceeding on the chance sympathy of others ? 



21 

Suppose after all they refuse to join us as they did under 
the same sanguine anticipations in the time of Nullification? 
Suppose that they consider our advance as rash and regard- 
less of the opinions of those, equally interested and equally 
competent to decide judiciously on the question at issue? 
What then will be our position ? Shall we fall back into the 
Union amidst the jeers of the world, or will the State stand 
apart and alone — the San Marino of North America — with- 
out fleets or armies, or any of the resources essential to in*- 
dependent power, existing not by her own strength, but by 
the sufferance only of the great and influential among foreign 
nations. No man of Carolina, who will consult his judgment 
and not his impulses, can desire to see the State of his pride 
and love reduced to a condition so pitiable and so con- 
temptible. 

This then is the substance of the foregoing remarks ; that 
the Union is the source of peace prosperity and power to the 
Nation, and its dissolution would be followed by disorder, 
violence, and civil wars ; that if the present Confederacy is 
broken up, the formation of any other would be difficult and 
its continuance impossible ; that no causes exist to justify 
the destruction of the Union ; that the measures lately 
adopted by Congress are not infringements on our constitu- 
tional rights, if they were, they are of common concern to 
the whole South ; that there are no manifestations of public 
opinion in the South that seem to demand even a cessation 
of social and commercial intercourse, far less a dissolution 
of the Union ; that the mere apprehension of aggressions for 
the future will not justify the resort to extreme measures for 
the present ; that the South will lose nothing by waiting, she 
is rapidly advancing in wealth, population, and power, and 
nothing can arrest her progress but the imprudence of her 
own people, and the rashness of her leaders. 

In expressing the feregoing opinions so freely, I beg it to 
]?e understood that 1 entertain the most sincere respect for 



22 

those of our State with whom I so widely disagree. That 
their judgment is in error I am firmly convinced, but that 
their motives are as pure and as elevated as ever actuated 
the purposes of men, I believe as firmly. If I consulted my 
feelings only, I should be content to remain silent, and acqui- 
esce in the proceedings of old and valued friends, with 
whom it gives me pain to differ. But the present occasion 
is too momentous lor this. It is pregnant with the fate of 
our whole country for all coming time, and I consider it 
a duty frankly to express the opinions which I have calmly 
and conscientiously formed on a subject respecting which it 
becomes every man to think deliberately, and to speak with- 
out reserve. 

For yourself, sir, permit me to express the esteem which 
a long and intimate acquaintance has continually increased, 
and to hope that you may be able to guide the State, of 
which Providence has made you the ruler, through the diffi- 
culties that beset her path, looking not to sectional passions 
and prejudices, which may pass away and be forgotten, but 
to the happiness of the whole country for all time to come. 
With respect and esteem, 

Your obedient servant, 

W. J. GRAYSON. 

Charleston, Oct. 17, 1850. 



23 



Note. 

The fugitive slave Act has not been referred to, because 1 
I proposed to confine myself to those measures only in the 
plan of pacification which have been denounced in the 
South as invasions on her rights. The fugitive Act is not 
one of these. We may doubt its efficiency, but we all ad- 
mit the propriety of the measure. 

There is one point of view however, in which this Act 
commends itself to our notice. It merits attention as it ex- 
presses emphatically on the part of the General Government, 
a disposition to carry out the provisions of the Constitution 
and to do us justice. As one of a system of measures, 
adopted for peace and conciliation, it is important as indica- 
ting the character of that system. It speaks to the motive 
of the whole scheme. It shows that it was the purpose of 
Congress and the Executive to respect, to assert, to main- 
tain the rights of the South. Is it not due to candour to ad- 
mit this, and admitting it, can it be affirmed that the Gen- 
eral Government is regardless of the constitutional rights of 
the Southern States? The very fact that this measure is 
odious to certain classes at the North, proves more clearly 
the resolution of the Government to do its duty. We may 
differ, and do differ, as to the character of the kindred mea- 
sures, though the majority of the Southern people accepts 
them, but about the fugitive slave Act, there is no difference 
of opinion, nor can there be any as to the evidence which it 
conclusively affords that the charge upon the National Gov- 
ernment, of recklessly trampling on the Constitution and 
tearing it to pieces, is only one of those monstrous chimeras 
which party excitements produce in such abundance, as mis- 
chievous as they are ephemeral. 

But the efficiency of the Act is denied. We profess to 
think that it will not be executed ; the people of the West 



24 

and North say that it shall be ; it has been already enforced 
promptly and resolutely. Let us not condemn before we 
hear, or act on the assumption that the law will be resisted 
and repealed because a lawless faction is opposed to it. 
Free negroes and abolitionists, in New- York or New-Eng- 
land, may threaten Bowie knives and revolvers, but the 
friends of law and order are more numerous and determined. 
Let us not mistake the brawling of the " beastly rout," for 
the voice of the people — the noise, as Burke expresses it, 
" of the insects that fill the air with their importunate chink, 
for the utterance of the great cattle of the field that are qui- 
etly browsing in the shade." The motley crew with their 
piebald projects and petty ambitions, will pass away and 
be forgotten. They are but the dnst on the Temple of 
American Liberty. Time will scatter it to the four winds 
of heaven, whilst he adds perpetually to the grandeur and 
beauty of the edifice which it obscures and deforms but for 
a season only. 



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